Doctor Who: The Library of Carsus discussion
The Doctor's Infinite Library
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Started watching the pirate planet: Tom seems over whatever was making him so grumpy during Ribos and there's more of an air of fun romp.The new model of K-9 must work better, as he's getting lots to do in these two stories.
also, ordering a book, for a friend, I needed to purchase something else, to reach the free shipping amount, so the Moonbase is heading my way.
For lack of a better place to put it, my review of the Big Finish/Anderson Entertainment "enhanced audiobook" release of Thunderbirds: Terror from the Stars is up now. Short version: I enjoyed it, but it definitely felt like it was longer than it needed to be.
Matthew wrote: "For lack of a better place to put it, my review of the Big Finish/Anderson Entertainment "enhanced audiobook" release of Thunderbirds: Terror from the Stars is up now. Short version..."BF is doing Thunderbirds audios...?
Very cool.
Nice to see them going crazy with the Gerry Anderson stuff.
Travis wrote: "BF is doing Thunderbirds audios...? Very cool. Nice to see them going crazy with the Gerry Anderson stuff. "Actually, technically, it’s was produced by Anderson Entertainment but co-released with Big Finish handling the download version.
Here’s my review, if you’re interested:
Thunderbirds: Terror from the Stars by John TheydonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
As a kid, I was absolutely enthralled with the series Thunderbirds from about 6-7 until about 10, by which time Marvel superheroes, Lost in Space and Kamandi (the Last Boy on Earth) took ahold of my imagination. So when I heard this was coming out as a kind of hybrid audiobook/audio-drama, I was thrilled. Big Finish has done a stupendous job of continuing the adventures of Doctor Who (as well as various other TV franchises, including Space: 1999, and some of their own creation as well) that I felt it would be in good and capable hands. Except , this wasn’t produced by Big Finish. It’s actually produced by Anderson Entertainment Productions in affiliation with Big Finish. Okay, okay. It’s certainly not a deal killer. Then I found out that it’s an adaptation of novel originally released in the 60s. Okay, okay. Not a deal killer. Oh, and it’s basically a kind of hybrid audiobook / audio-drama - now here’s where I started to worry a bit. I’m not a much of a fan of audiobooks, where some sits in front of a microphone and reads the book. These can be thrilling. But they can also be as dull as molasses. It’s all about the reader. Supercritical. I tend to lean toward the author reading their own work, or someone who really, really understands the nature of the task at hand. Otherwise - well, it’s not just the voice, it’s what you do with it that really matters. In the end, I tend to prefer audio-dramas, where it isn’t narrated - the whole thing is acted out, with music, sound effects and whole big production values. This is where Big Finish excels. Seriously. But this particular audio release, falls into that odd twilight zone that’s neither a true audio-drama, nor strictly speaking is it a mere audiobook. It’s an audio-hybrid, a bit of both. And again, Big Finish has a pretty darn good track record with this type of production as well.
Sigh, okay I’ve rambled on about this long enough, let me wrap this up - Over all I enjoy this, but sadly the performances are a bit TOO much like the old series. While I’d certainly pleased that these new performances resonate from the original cast without parroting some kind of impression, the problem is that the stiffness is there as well, and while it was kind of necessary to match the voice to the marionettes in the 60s production of the TV series, this newer purely audio production didn’t need to perpetuate that same quality. But, as I said, it does resonate with nostalgia and authenticity, and that makes it enormously entertaining. This brings me too the narrative. Originally written as a tie-in novel in the 60s, this adaptation certainly works and feels like it was lifted right from that era. Unfortunately, this also works against the production as it clearly roots the story in the tone and texture of that bygone culture. All-in-all, this is an entertaining, if unoriginal, production - but there’s nothing truly remarkable to really set it off as unique. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite all that I was hoping it might have been.
View all my reviews
Matthew wrote: "... Short version: I enjoyed it, but it definitely felt like it was longer than it needed to be."I rather agree with you, but as it was an actual audio-book, as opposed to being an actual audio-drama, the length was expected. Originally published as a novel in the late 60s, but adapted for this new audio edition.
Pirate Planet: Man, that was fun!Great writing (Duh! It's Douglas Adams), Tom looks to be having fun and has his energy back, lots of K-9 and just a fun sci-fi romp.
My wife is becoming a big Romana fan.
Travis wrote: "... My wife is becoming a big Romana fan. "As well she should.
Rick wrote: "Travis wrote: "... My wife is becoming a big Romana fan. "As well she should."
Most of what she knew about Romana was the Lalla Ward stories.
She'd heard there was another one, but had never seen any Mary Tamm ones.
I think Tamm has done a few Big Finish audios as well. I wonder if they’ve done one about what causes her regeneration?
Mod
Sadly, this story would be one that would need a step in actor to do her part. Tamm died of cancer in 2012.
Mod
Great writing (Duh! It's Douglas Adams), Tom looks to be having fun and has his energy back, lots of K-9 and just a fun sci-fi romp.
My wife is becoming a big Rom..."
Mary Tamm's Romana is one that grows on you. I think it took Androids of Tara for me to finally go, "yes, I really like her."
Pirate Planet will forever have a soft spot in my heart - the first time I saw it in high school was after a really awful day and I was in a very bad mood by the time the show came on (9pm on a Friday night - this was when PBS was a cutting and pasting the shows into movie length stories). By the time the credits were rolling, I was grinning ear to ear.
Lori S. wrote: "Travis wrote: "Pirate Planet: Man, that was fun!Great writing (Duh! It's Douglas Adams), Tom looks to be having fun and has his energy back, lots of K-9 and just a fun sci-fi romp.
My wife is bec..."
It is just a fun romp.
There is some serious, dark stuff happening and Tom's speeches to the Queen and Captain are some of the best Who has done, but it's the fun stuff that makes it all work.
Adams doesn't try to make it his story, he just looks at what makes a good Who story and dials that up a couple notches.
Lori S. wrote: "Rick wrote: "I think Tamm has done a few Big Finish audios as well. I wonder if they’ve done one about what causes her regeneration?"Sadly, this story would be one that would need a step in actor..."
Sad to hear.
Don't really need a reason for her regeneration.
We've had references before that some Time Lords do it, just because they want to. They want a change.
Lori S. wrote: "Sadly, this story would be one that would need a step in actor to do her part. Tamm died of cancer in 2012."😿
Lori S. wrote: "... By the time the credits were rolling, I was grinning ear to ear."Great experience. I had something similar with Space: 1999 When I was in junior high. And I’ve got to admit that the hope of the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe films have kept me going during this pandemic.
Rick wrote: "I think Tamm has done a few Big Finish audios as well. I wonder if they’ve done one about what causes her regeneration?"It's been contradictory explanations in two different audios, one from the Gallifrey series that Tamm appeared in and then in a story with Lalla Ward's Romana in the monthly range called The Chaos Pool. If memory serves, there were vague plans to potentially do a story featuring in a second batch of Fourth Doctor/First Romana audios that didn't come to pass due to Tamm's passing.
First episode of Loki was quite good and looks to try and make sense of the mess that is time travel in the MCU.
Is it possible to make sense of time travel? 🤷🏻♂️
I haven’t seen the episode yet. It might be awhile for me to get all the arrangements coordinated to do so. I don’t have Disney+ so I have to wait for a friend to get it into their schedule.
Just realized, while watching the Moonbase and explaining Cyber-history to my wife, that Pertwee never had a Cybermen episode, unless you count the Five Doctors.Did BF ever fix that or should I add it to my fanfic to do list?
Travis wrote: "Just realized, while watching the Moonbase and explaining Cyber-history to my wife, that Pertwee never had a Cybermen episode, unless you count the Five Doctors.Did BF ever fix that or should I a..."
BF has done two, with a third on the way. There's the Liz Shaw Companion Chronicle The Blue Tooth and then Marc Platt's The Tyrants of Logic in The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume 4. There's going to be an "audio novel" called Scourge of the Cybermen by Simon Guerrier coming out in July, if memory serves.
On an unrelated note, I just finished reading the for-charity Forgotten Lives from Obverse Books featuring the Morbius Doctors. A fun read though, being an anthology, some stories are better than others. Still a few copies left in stock and definitely recommend picking it up.
Travis wrote: "... Did BF ever fix that or should I add it to my fanfic to do list?"Yep, you’re right Matthew, you beat me to it. And Doctor Who: Scourge of the Cybermen does come out next month, in July.
I’ve done it! Finally! As of last night, with finishing the last episode of The Space Pirates, I have now watched or listened to (in the case of the lost episodes) every episode of the original classic Doctor Who series at least once. It didn’t even occur to me last night as I finished, but did this morning when I woke up. All 695 aired episodes (including the 20th anniversary special). And I just need City of Death and I’ll own copies of them all. One of these days ...
Matthew wrote: "Travis wrote: "Just realized, while watching the Moonbase and explaining Cyber-history to my wife, that Pertwee never had a Cybermen episode, unless you count the Five Doctors.Did BF ever fix tha..."
Good to know that BF has stepped in to fix that gap in the Pertwee era.
I've seen that Mobius Doctor book ( or should we refer to them as the Ruth Doctors or the Timeless now?) and need to pick it up.
I still think there’s something about the Fugitive (Ruth) Doctor that doesn’t add up yet. We have been shown the (Hartnell) Doctor and Susan getting aboard the TARDIS. And yet, the Fugitive (Ruth) Doctor has a Police Box camouflaged TARDIS and yet, and I wrong, that it has been strongly implied that the Doctor and Susan set out in a TARDIS that was not Police Box camouflaged. This gives me the impression that the Fugitive (Ruth) Doctor may in fact be lying about not recognizing the sonic or at least she doesn’t remember and that she is actually a future incarnation of the Doctor. I’m not an expert Whovian on the lore, and the universe has been remade at least once, so who’s to say we’re still getting anything remotely like truth here?
Rick wrote: "I still think there’s something about the Fugitive (Ruth) Doctor that doesn’t add up yet. We have been shown the (Hartnell) Doctor and Susan getting aboard the TARDIS. And yet, the Fugitive (Ruth) ..."Yeah, there's a lot going on and it has so much potential to be a mess.
Part of why I wasn't as outraged by the reveal as parts of fandom, because on its own, it's not much, it's what they do with it and how it changes things that is the deciding factor.
Travis wrote: "Yeah, there's a lot going on and it has so much potential to be a mess. Part of why I wasn't as outraged by the reveal as parts of fandom, because on its own, it's not much, it's what they do with it and how it changes things that is the deciding factor."Hmm. I’m not really part of the fan community, just hovering around on the fringes, so if there’s outrage, I’ve missed all the fun. I’m rather on the inclination to see that the series is returning to its roots. Those first 6 seasons were all about not knowing who or what the Doctor was. Things have been unsettled and upended into leaving a whole new layer of mystery and uncertainty. Absolutely wonderful.
Rick wrote: "Travis wrote: "Yeah, there's a lot going on and it has so much potential to be a mess. Part of why I wasn't as outraged by the reveal as parts of fandom, because on its own, it's not much, it's wha..."I like the Ruth Doctor, but the whole timeless child stuff doesn't interest me much.
Like with Clara going all through the Doctor's timeline, it's a bit too cutesy and clever.
It piles on too much stuff.
It undermines stuff.
So instead of adding a bit of mystery it screams from the highest rooftop 'Look at what I did! It's so mysterious!"
I liked what they did with the McCoy Doctor. They added mystery, but it was a little bit sprinkled about.
The timeless child used a dump truck.
Wait and see, but New Who hasn't had the best record with this stuff.
More rewatch:Stones off Blood: I love this one. Everything just clicks to create a nice little romp.
Love the supporting cast. Professor Rumford should have been a companion.
The aliens are great, the story, starting as a supernatural mystery and turning into sci-fi is well done and great sets and locations.
And K-9 gets lots to do. They really figured out how to make use of him this season.
Travis wrote: "... The timeless child used a dump truck. ..."I get what you’re saying. And I’m usually very very wary of retcon introduced into long time continuity. It’s reckless and usually fruitless in the big picture, creating more problems than it’s worth. But this is different, at least for me. What I’m seeing is that they’re basically saying: the Doctor isn’t a time lord from Gallifrey (although there is still a way that they could be, but that’s another story) but that they were adopted. That’s they real stickler. It’s like an adult suddenly being told they were adopted. It’s earth shattering, certainly, and they’re will be trauma, but they are still the same person they always were and in fact their story hasn’t changed one quantum, it’s just become deeper and potentially much more complicated and richer.
Most retcons are about adding “more” events or complications to existing continuity- they’re adding adventures between the stories. This can be hit or miss. And can piss off longtime, life-time, fans if not handled very carefully. Like when Marvel decided it would be a good idea to being back Norman Osborn decades after he’d been shown to have been killed and buried and had the gall to do the same to Gwen Stacy and have her have given birth to Osborn’s babies. It was too much. And it was done terribly. And then the deal Peter made with Mephisto to rewrite history? Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m outta here. Peter would not make a deal with the Devil. Except he did. Done deal. It’s in print.
Can you imagine the Doctor making a deal with the Daleks or the Master or the Cybermen to rewrite history so they don't have to live with a perceived mistake they had made? Did the Doctor try to make a deal with the Daleks to revise history and retcon Gallifrey back into existence?
Marvel fundamentally rewrote the character, they fundamentally broke the character. Crossed the Rubicon. There’s no going back now. And they lost a reader. For good.
But with Doctor Who, as I said, I’m seeing this as more of an opening up of the past - adoption - not a closing off of the character by layering false complications. But time will tell.
Going to one of the five best zoos in the nation tomorrow: the Toledo Zoo. Inexplicably, I haven’t been in years.
First Action Bureau Series One by Jamie AndersonMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
First thought ~ This does feel like an updated Gerry Anderson production in a lot of ways. So that’s a plus. What wasn’t a plus was that it felt unfocused and overly vague, like these were characters I should already know. Except I don’t know who these people are. What is the F.A.B.? Are they the good guys or the bad? Is this ambiguity just a flavor for the updated concept? I almost feel like they should have trimmed this down to a more barebones story so they could really give it a chance to develop more organically.
Second thoughts ~ We get some tantalizing tidbits of stuff that explain a little but. Sacha Dhawan gets a little more to do as the story progresses. That’s a bonus (more Sacha Dhawan is always a bonus). The story moves on a bit and things start make a tad more sense.
Final thoughts ~ Well ... it’s interesting, but it’s a bit hard to figure out where this is going and what’s going on. That’s part of the intent, as it deals with questioning reality and what’s real and what isn’t. But the audience need something to grasp ahold of in order to keep interested and I didn’t really feel like I had an attachment to any characters or concepts. I’ll try and give it another run through and see if a second listen will help me enjoy it more. But my initial reaction wasn’t a desire to continue with the series.
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Rick wrote: "Going to one of the five best zoos in the nation tomorrow: the Toledo Zoo. Inexplicably, I haven’t been in years."Sounds fun.
Haven't been to a zoo in years.
Did it alot as my son was obsessed with animals as a youngster.
It's father's day weekend, so I will be celebrating in the traditional manner: grilling meat in my backyard
Zoo. Tigers. Check. Thai food for dinner from my favorite restaurant. Check.
Thai food picnic dinner in the park. Check.
Raspberry Milkshake while walking through city garden park. Check.
Best day with friends in a long time. Check.
Rick wrote: "Zoo. Tigers. Check. Thai food for dinner from my favorite restaurant. Check.
Thai food picnic dinner in the park. Check.
Raspberry Milkshake while walking through city garden park. Check.
Best ..."
Sounds nice.
Taking some time off this week, my wife and I have plans to stop at a favorite used bookstore of ours and then go stick our feet in the ocean.
Travis wrote: "... Taking some time off this week, my wife and I have plans to stop at a favorite used bookstore of ours and then go stick our feet in the ocean."Nice.
Androids of Tara: halfway through. Light and fluffy, but Tara is kind of an interesting world, they have castles and horses, but they also have androids and lasers.Seems a shame we never went back.
Like Peladon, there seems all kinds of story potential here.
Found one of the Space:1999 novels cheap and it was a decent read.Felt like a good episode of the show.
I like when we put the Moonbase Alpha crew in a slightly Star Trek feeling story and then show us that they are not the crew of the enterprise and so have to scramble to figure things out and survive.
They were never given the tech or training to explore the universe.
Travis wrote: "Found one of the Space:1999 novels cheap and it was a decent read. ..."Which one?
Androids of Tara: all done. Light and fluffy as can be, saved by some clever dialogue, an interesting planet and a good supporting cast.Count Grendel was fun and gets one off the all time great exit lines.
Shame we've never gotten a return to Tara.
Travis wrote: "... Shame we've never gotten a return to Tara."Well, you never can tell. It’s still running ...
Travis wrote: "Androids of Tara: all done. Light and fluffy as can be, saved by some clever dialogue, an interesting planet and a good supporting cast.Count Grendel was fun and gets one off the all time great ex..."
You've not read Paul Cornell's play The Trials of Tara in Decalog 2: Lost Property I take it?
Matthew wrote: "Travis wrote: "Androids of Tara: all done. Light and fluffy as can be, saved by some clever dialogue, an interesting planet and a good supporting cast.Count Grendel was fun and gets one off the al..."
I don't think so.
I only ever managed to get one volume of decalog.
That series was rare and then it got pricey.
halfway through my Prisoner rewatch.So good and such a great visual show.
Fun tracking down wether an actor I recognize was on Doctor Who or from an Avengers episode.
Makes me want to write a fanfic where the village is populated by spies from TV and movies.
Travis wrote: "... Makes me want to write a fanfic where the village is populated by spies from TV and movies."And then the Doctor shows up? 😸
Rick wrote: "Travis wrote: "... Makes me want to write a fanfic where the village is populated by spies from TV and movies."And then the Doctor shows up? 😸"
That's a whole different fanfic idea
Doctor Who: The Library of Carsus
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Cute little quirky, fun cartoon. And then we got to season 2 and they started to explain stuff. ..."
A friend of mine really liked it, I have..."
Good show. fun and really rewarding as the bigger story comes together.